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In 2016, French-Canadian singer Marie Davidson released the incredible album “Adieu au Dancefloor”. Five years later, Andy Butler seems to be following the same path. The heart and soul of the group Hercules & Love Affair, he signed to James Murphy’s label, DFA, in 2007 and later became fascinated by Marie’s record that was dedicated to the queer side of club culture. In Amber aims to shake up the songwriting norms within dance music. “In dance music, the focus tends to be more on celebration, joy, desire, heartbreak. But rage? Existential contemplation? Not so much…certain emotions seemed to be off limits,” he explains. “I needed to express my discomfort. Making a 90’s sounding techno or house record, or an odd 80’s sounding dance track was not anything I needed to do.” Butler sure makes this discomfort known across the 12 tracks on this album. Half of them are once again written alongside Anohni, the voice of Blind, the hit track from Hercules’ first album in 2008. Meanwhile, Icelandic singer Elin Ey brings a very 90s pop sound to Grace and Dissociation. With Budgie from Siouxsie And The Banshees on the drums, Andy Butler has created a cathartic album that isn’t afraid to embrace the darkness (You’ve Won This War). This brutally honest record includes everything from post-punk influences (Christian Prayers) to Nick Cave (Gates of Separation) and has no interest in pretence. © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz

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Disco DNA can be found in any current pop chart. There are underground groups and producers who owe as much to the Chic Organization and the Prelude label as a garage band owes to the Stooges and the Rolling Stones. Few treat disco as a living and breathing art form, as opposed to something in need of a revival and the uniqueness-eliminating reverence that often goes with it, like Hercules & Love Affair. Led by Andrew Butler, a songwriter, producer, keyboardist, and vocalist, the group is fleshed out with production and programming from the DFA's Tim Goldsworthy, a trio of disparate but complementary vocalists (Antony, Nomi, Kim Ann Foxman), and several instrumentalists who are skilled and knowledgeable enough about club music from the mid-'70s through the present to not retrace too many of anyone's steps. Apart from their name, which resembles the more rock-oriented Heloise & the Savoir Faire and can be interpreted as a play on the names of both house producer Adonis and disco units like Pam Todd & Love Exchange, they aren't likely to trigger many concrete flashbacks. Instead, they present an evolved version of disco, one that contains certain trademark elements of the past while sounding brand new. Wordless vocal samples, synthetic cowbells, prancing keyboard taps, and heartbroken lyrics over a four-four rhythm, as heard on "You Belong," don't make for an original set of components, but the manner in which they are put together, constantly twisting into different shapes and sealed inside radiant production, make it practically otherworldly (and it is, by a long distance, the least singular track on the album). The other tracks that put the dancefloor first, whether small or grand in scope, are generous in delights, supplying supple basslines, beaming keyboard patterns, and singing horns, all of which are arranged in ways that serve the body and the mind, simultaneously muscular and musical. What really puts the album over the top as something else is not just its ideas-stuffed brevity (46 minutes in its original form), but its material not made explicitly for the club. The back-to-back pair of "Iris" and "Easy" are gorgeous, slow-shifting, electronics-driven songs with lyrics that read as platitudes yet are truly heartfelt and deeply touching, obviously written not just for the sake of vocal accompaniment.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Andy Butler is a fascinating pillar of the dancefloor, who deserves more recognition. Since he launched Hercules & Love Affair into the world, the Denver native has succeeded in mixing house, disco, techno and nu-disco together, sometimes in a solution of pure hedonism; sometimes opting for something more cerebral. This has led some to compare him to the late Arthur Russell, who also enjoyed playing with the rules of dance music and its descendants... With Omnion, Butler has invited various names to come and dive body and soul into his universe. After Antony Hegarty, John Grant and indeed Kele Okereke, this time he has brought out Sharon Van Etten, Faris Badwan from The Horrors, the Iceland natives of Sísý Ey and the Lebanese Mashrou' Leila. It's an eclectic cast list, which makes for high hopes that this record will be just as ineffable as his earlier works. You have to let go to listen to Hercules & Love Affair. Forget the references and the revisions. And let yourself be carried away by the often-subtle vibrations orchestrated by Andy Butler. © MD/Qobuz

The Feast of the Broken Heart and 2011's Blue Songs are more dissimilar than their titles indicate. Andy Butler retains writing and production partner Mark Pistel but otherwise refreshes his house syndicate with new collaborators and voices. Viennese production duo Haze Factory, who previously remixed Butler and Shaun J. Wright's "Forever More" and were a highlight of Butler's 2012 DJ-Kicks set, are added to the mix. The lead vocalists -- a couple of whom crossed paths with Butler at Hercules & Love Affair shows -- are all new. Butler and his co-producers concoct a similarly lean album that could fit on one side of a 90-minute cassette, but the edges and moods are much sharper than those of Blue Songs. There are fewer subtleties. The tough and mechanical "My Offence," the first proper song, begins with Krystle Warren pointedly asking, with elegant muscularity, "Are you talking to me? My name isn't 'girl'." Like the majority of what follows, it's an aggressive track that recalls early house music, as well as a fully developed song. Other cuts temper the smacking drums with finer details -- piano trills, string sweetening, and basslines that burble into play and then vanish. Two such songs are greatly enhanced with lead vocals from John Grant, whose presence might come as a shock for those who haven't heard the first couple tracks off his Pale Green Ghosts; the choice to involve him was as smart as seeking Antony Hegarty, another dance music outsider, for "Blind." On the trucking "I Try to Talk to You," Grant is just above a purr, coolly offering "I could've taught you how to love yourself," while the slightly acidic "Liberty" reaches a peak when he belts "You can be free" out of pained resignation rather than encouragement. Gustaph and Rouge Mary also prove to be ideal foils for Butler, who still makes his songs tight, powerful, and optimally shaped.© Andy Kellman /TiVo

Andy Butler is a fascinating pillar of the dancefloor, who deserves more recognition. Since he launched Hercules & Love Affair into the world, the Denver native has succeeded in mixing house, disco, techno and nu-disco together, sometimes in a solution of pure hedonism; sometimes opting for something more cerebral. This has led some to compare him to the late Arthur Russell, who also enjoyed playing with the rules of dance music and its descendants... With Omnion, Butler has invited various names to come and dive body and soul into his universe. After Antony Hegarty, John Grant and indeed Kele Okereke, this time he has brought out Sharon Van Etten, Faris Badwan from The Horrors, the Iceland natives of Sísý Ey and the Lebanese Mashrou' Leila. It's an eclectic cast list, which makes for high hopes that this record will be just as ineffable as his earlier works. You have to let go to listen to Hercules & Love Affair. Forget the references and the revisions. And let yourself be carried away by the often-subtle vibrations orchestrated by Andy Butler. © MD/Qobuz